reference. good afternoon, i'm joy reid in for martin bashir. it's monday november the 4th and president obama beware. the ghost of 2012 is loose oh. what you often hear out of washington can sound like charlie brown's teacher. a jumble of unfocused noise. >> i think it's rotting away. >> out of touch with the things you care about. >> eve got to have a president that can lead. >> we should want be injuring ourselves. >> and right now not able to do so. the campaign manager of ken cuccinel cuccinelli. >> the whole country is waiting for your choice. >> an extreme faction of the republican party, they're willing to hijack the entire party, the country, the economy. >> we want more leaders like your next governor, ken cuccinelli. therveths don't come better than chris christie. >> they try to discern things. >> there are very real consequences when you operate ideologically. >> does ted cruz stand out to you? >> put five red necks on a

mower. >> i'm being unfairly targeted by a bunch of hacks and haters. if dueling were legal in kentucky it would be a challenge. >> the last five years have not been a great time. >> a jumble of unfocused noise out of touch with the things you care about. ♪ like a song you hear that lingers in your ear ♪ ♪ but you can't forget from sundown ♪ ♪ >> this week marks one year since the 2012 presidential election and if this is the annual checkup, it's largely the president's health care law that's going through a major stress test. and right now, the white house is reaching out for support in the face of continuous oh criticism of the law and its rollout. later this evening, the president will speak about the benefits of health care reform at an organizing for action event. and later this week, he'll travel to texas to thank volunteers helping people enroll in the new health care exchanges. the president is keeping up a furious public information push, as dueling headlines leave many

consumers still confused over the law and its impact. in the "washington post" for consumers whose health premiums go up, sticker shock leads to anger. in the "new york times" millions eligible for free policies. and i'm sure you can imagine that last story was not the one singled out by losing presidential candidate mitt romney on "meet the press." >> i think the key thing that the president is trying to get away from, and that is that he told people they could keep their insurance and that was not the truth. and whether you like the model of obama care or not, the fact that the president sold it on a basis that was not true has undermined the foundation of his second term. i think it's rotting it away. >> that guy still has a collar. they're keeping up a vigilant effort to remind people, many private plans held by just 5% of americans were roan rotten to begin with. >> a majority of those folks will get better coverage at the same or oh less cost than they

have today. and, you know, that's important. that is, you know, delivering on one of the promises of the affordable care act. >> the white house meanwhile is facing a new headache. over a memo published in the "washington post" showing that an outside adviser warned of major structural and personnel problems with the rollout back in may of 2010. harvard professor david cutler told the president's top economic advisers, quote, i do not believe the relevant members of the administration understand the president's vision or have the capability to carry it out. and while the white house admits no one is satisfied with the rollout, jay carney reiterated with palpable frustration they're working 24/7 to get the website and all of the rest up to par. >> in the meantime, we're, you know, busting rocks every day to fix the website. so that it's up and running at a standard that's acceptable for the vast majority of americans by the end of the month. >> four weeks to go, and you can tell, they know that the clock is ticking. joining me is congressman

jerrold nadler, democrat of new york. and congressman, you know, do you get the sense that the problems with the website have now completely obscured the central point, which is that the benefits that the affordable care act potentially offers to people? >> no, i don't think they have completely obscured it. i think they have taken the place in the press for a little time. but again, this was a major, major social change, the most major change since medicare and medicaid 35 years ago. and in two years, no one is going to remember this if the law works. >> right. >> if most people get insurance, which they will, that's cheaper and more effective, they're not going to remember the problems of the rollout. now, of course, the republicans have been doing everything they can to sabotage the underlying law. i mean, one of the reasons, not the only reason, but one of the reasons you're having such a problem with the central exchange is because most of the states with republican governors or legislatures refuse to set up their own exchanges, which was anticipated and the republican congress refused to appropriate

money for the federal exchange, which had to be much more expensive to take care of all the people that the state exchanges should have taken out. so they did everything they could to sabotage this. and now they're busy sabotaging the navigators and the people on the ground trying to tell people what their rights oh. and then, of course, remember, one of the two central purposes of the bill. the two central purposes are to get everybody insured and secondly to, get rid of the tyranny of the insurance companies which americans so love and tortured americans and given lousy service and dropped them when they got sick and so forth. and now you have the insurance companies saying, well, we're going drop your coverage to some of the 5% of the people who are in the individual plans. >> right. >> and you can get better coverage -- you can get equal coverage from us without telling them they can go to the exchange and get much better coverage more cheaply. >> that's been one of the odd things you have seen happen. republicans essentially giving a pass to insurance companies as if, number one, they have never raised insurance premiums before the affordable care act. and number two, not explaining

to people, if you're getting a letter saying your policy is now noncompliant, and they're not then telling you you can shop for a cheaper policy on the exchange, that's not the affordable care act. that's the insurance company doing what they have long done, as you said, which is mess people over. >> and remember, when the president said if you like your insurance policy you can keep t he was referring to two things. one, the 85% of people who have their insurance from employers, medicare, medicaid, v.a., et cetera. and two, people in the private insurance market who had policies by the time the bill passed. >> right. >> if you had a policy by the time the bill passed that the insurance company didn't completely exchange that policy which they could or could not do without obama care, you could keep that policy, even if it's a lousy policy. it's only if the insurance company changed the policy afterwards or bred out a new policy oh, which didn't meet the minimum requirements. you know, one thing everybody forgets, 55% of people who go bankrupt in this country go bankrupt because of a medical emergency. and 75% of the people go bankrupt because of medical emergency had insurance.

which when they got sick wasn't sufficient and made them go bankrupt. one of the major points of this bill is we're saying nobody is going bankrupt for lack of a decent insurance policy again. you will have insurance that is worthy of the name insurance instead of something that says well you've got 25,000 deductible or will drop you the moment you get sick. >> thank you for that explanation. congressman gerald nather, appreciate you being here. >> good to be here. while the house is busting rocks, the president's one-time presidential rival, well, he's still deeply engaged in electoral fantasies. >> how would you have dealt with obama care had you become president? >> well, i am not president so i can't be so clear-minded as to tell you what i would have done. but the right way to replace obama care is to elect republicans to the senate and the house and ultimately the white house, and repair obama care, replace it, and put in place something that's going to do a better job for the american people. >> well, gee, that sounds like a great idea. wonder why nobody has tried

that. we'll bring in dana milbank now, political columnist for "the washington post." dana, there's the solution. problem solved oh. let's elect some republicans and that will fix the affordable care act. >> i am sure republicans will appreciate that endorsement. they have tried that a couple times now, and they're trying it in virginia tomorrow. so far, the american people aren't going along with that plan. now, if these problems are real, and the problems with obama care are not fixed, that's an entirely different story. but i don't think it's an outright panic at this moment. >> one of the things that mitt romney did get right, dana, he is not in fact president of the united states. >> he's got that right. >> there is a new book that talks about the process he was going through called "double down," the game change sequel and claims that republican elders got so freaked out by mitt romney's inability to defeat rick santorum, the former

pennsylvania senator about halfway through the republican primaries, they actually secretly hatched a white knight scenario to draft a savior candidate. and an initiative held by -- can you -- do you remember that or do you recall that, or who might have been the savior that republicans could have picked instead of mitt? >> well, that was the problem. they didn't really have an obvious one to step in there. would it be jeb bush? well, he was attached to the bush family, which was rather unpopular. if there had been an obvious person to step in, they would have. the truth of the matter is, that primary process, like all republican primaries still are, almost entirely controlled by the conservative base. that's why a guy like rick santorum, who wasn't really a strong or viable candidate, could give somebody like mitt romney, who on paper should be a strong candidate, such a run for his money. that's why chris christie, an obvious choice for republicans, who is going to be re-elected practically by acclimation

tomorrow, is not considered in a very good position to gain that nomination. >> now, of course, one of the other cute tidbits, it exposes the name of romney's veepters. chris christie, referred to as puffer fish, tim pawlenty, lake fish, rob portman, filet owe fish. marco rubio, piscibo. discuss. >> that's something to drop in my lap like that. well, they like goldfish crackers in the office and i guess they, you know owe there's a few people on every campaign have all kinds of enjoyment coming up with antics the public never hears about. i'm glad when this first rough draft of history is done we get to hear a few of these things come out. >> with, i mean, i wonder whether the romney folks risked being punched in the face calling chris christie puffer fish. i don't think that would go over well. >> no, and they're counting on

that not coming out in real-time. and i suspect mitt romney was actually not the one running around using those particular code names. >> but they're so corny, it sounds like something he personally might have made up. >> it might have qualified for that sort of third grade humor level that we all became so endeared of. >> it's not good. and then you have to do the romney laugh afterwards. >> ha-ha-ha. >> thanks so much, "washington post" dana milbank. extra republican candidates on display tomorrow in new jersey and virginia. will the gps lead the party back from the brink? >> tuesday night, we are going to have a historic victory for new jersey, and remember this, we'll end right here. america is watching, everybody. >> yeah. >> america is watching. ♪ well i drove grandpa to his speed dating this week,

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with democrats sensing victory in virginia's gubernatorial election tomorrow, thanks in large part to the tea party, establishment republicans are hanging their election hopes on the governor from new jersey. chris christie and his almost 30-point lead are barreling through the garden state on a 91-stop re-election tour. and yet in the process, they're also reminding everyone of some of the baggage that comes with him. for instance, there's the chris christie who isn't about dropping a four-letter word when relating a story about how an elderly voter told christie she prays for him at night. >> she goes, you want to hear it? i said sure, okay. and she said, that night when i went to bed, i said, lord, please give our governor strength.

because i don't know how much more [ bleep ] this boy can take. >> okay. that's a little crude. and it's not even the worst thing christie did on this trip. because there's also the nasty finger-waving side to chris christie. this photo was captured by slate reporter and msnbc reporter dave weigelel. it shows christie berating a teacher who dared to challenge him after calling her, quote, you people. that teacher later ended a blog post about the encounter this way. what do "we people" want, governor christie? we want our schools back, we want to teach. we want to be allowed to help these children to grow, educationally, socially and emotionally. we want to be respected as we do this, not bullied. and joining us now, ryan grim, washington bureau chief from "washington post" and ryan engel, coauthor of "chris christie, inside story of his rise to power." there is this thing where particularly journalists love chris christie, think he's

awesome, straight talker, gets this great press. but there is this other side to chris christie who does seem to be a teacher bully. which side of chris christie is more real? >> i think he says what he thinks. that teacher that you're talking about accused him of saying that schools were failure factories and, in fact, he has said that. but he never said they all were. he said some of them need to be fixed. so i think some of his critics maybe go a little too far with that kind of thing. >> but, so let's go over to you, ryan, because there is this new book out, the sequel to "game change" called "double down." and one of the things they talk about is the vetting of chris christie by the romney team and they talk about his financial responsibility involving him or his brother, things about character. what do you make of all of these stories? >> well, i mean, first of all, the fact that it would leak out shows that he doesn't have any friends in the romney camp, and that's not surprising to anyone, you know, if you remember how

the campaign ended with chris christie embracing obama the last several days. there are still plenty of people, i think including romney himself, who think he might actually have won the election if it hadn't been for sandy and for the way that that all unfolded. so, you know, it exposes that political dynamic itself. but it also, you know, without having seen everything in there, you know, you have to remember that chris christie did not always see himself as a presidential contender. he had a local/political career that didn't go well at first. and then he went back to the private sector. then he kind of had a resurrection, and now is on his way to a serious white house campaign. so this being new jersey, you're going to find things in his background that are very new jerseyish. and will lend themselves to 30-second commercials about, you know, using your influence to help your friends. and that sort of thing. so that will be something that he'll have to deal with. >> bob, picking up on ryan's point, things about chris christie that are new jerseyish, that obviously in being a blue state would make him sort of an

en agent ma to a lot of people on the right and in republican politics right now, purity really is kind of the main narrative. i want to play you something that chris christie had to say about this subject of political purity and get your response on the other side. >> all right. >> if you're looking for the politician you agree with 100% of the time, here's my suggestion. go home, look in the mirror, you're it. you're the only person you agree with 100%. time. right? so we don't hold each other to that standard. because when you hold politicians to at that standard, i'll tell you what they do, they lie to you. >> bob, is that going to be enough to convince conservatives that chris christie is good enough to pass the test and be one of them in 2016? >> first of all, let me say about "double down" a great book by two really great journalists. and about what they knew when they were doing the vetting. our book takes care of all those issues. we've already -- we've gone through it and done the vetting. people are acting like this is just brand-new. some of it was a part of the public record when we wrote the

book. so i -- all you've got to do is read the book, page 61 is where it starts and talks about that. about the other thing, i think this kind of thing were going to bother christie, he wouldn't be as popular as he is right now. he's on the brink of having a landslide in this state. and every time i'm with him in another state, it's the same kind of reaction. people just love him. and one of the things they like about him is he talks like that. he talks like people think that they would talk if they were in the public eye. >> well, they like that in new jersey. ryan, i want to go back -- i don't want to leave out poor ken cuccinelli. a pity is sitting in. he's about to get beaten tomorrow, probably. but he represents the polar opposite problem for republicans, right? if chris christie may be rough around the edges and a little too blunt, a bit of a teacher bully, cuccinelli is supposed to be what the base of the republican party wants and in the theory of the far right, he

should be winning. why isn't he winning? >> well, you know, because that theory doesn't hold. i mean, every party believes after they lose an election that, you know, if they had only been more pure, further to the left or further to the right, whatever party they're in, that then they would have won. that america is really with them, they're just not, you know -- they just didn't communicate where they are quite clearly enough and take a firm enough principle to stand. but i mean, clearly cuccinelli is showing that is not the case. he communicates very clearly where he stands, and he stands on principles, and those principles are being roundly rejected. by voters who are going to pick somebody that they tell pollsters they don't like. people don't like terry mcauliffe, but he is going to trounce cuccinelli, because cuccinelli is so much more disliked by virginia voters. >> yeah, they don't like necessarily terry mcauliffe, but they like legal birth control. >> right. >> one more quick question to

bob. chris christie, what he's doing, obviously, is going to win in new jersey. but he also engineered a race in which corey booker would not be on the same ballot. so in fairness, he did engineer a landslide for himself. could he replicate virginia. could he win outside of jersey? >> i guess we'll find out. but i've been with him in other states. north carolina and new hampshire, which are very different kinds of states. the people loved him there, too. he's a very, very absolute shhh rude guy and has got some very intelligent people working for him. so i think it's going to be a very interesting race that starts after the election tomorrow. >> all right. it's all good until you bully a teacher. all right, ryan grim and bob engelel, thank you for being here. >> thank you. >> all right, and still ahead, senator rand paul fires back on allegations of plagiarism in today's top lines. i challenge thee to a dual! >> if dualing were legal in kentucky, if they keep it up, it would be a dual challenge, but i can't do that. ♪

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stay with us. a special like father like son top lines is up next. but first, the stanley cup championship chicago blackhawks hon honored today at the white house. the president wasted no time putting his other hometown teams on blast. >> to the bulls, bears, cubs, white sox, i am term-limited. so you guys got to get moving. i need to see -- championships belong in chicago. thanks to the blackhawks for bringing it back home. ♪ this is the quicksilver cash back card from capital one.

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from second thoughts on mitt romney to rand paul's primary

sources, here are today's top lines. i demand satisfaction! >> governor, it's good to see you. thank you for being here. >> thanks, david. good to be with you. >> has there been a time where you wished you would have voted for mitt romney? >> you know, romney got 20% of the young black male vote. >> ah, we have a genius who is familiar with -- do you want to come up and tell us about that? >> oh, sorry, i always like to start with a joke. >> the flip part of the problem. it's silly season. >> at this stage, you look at chris christie and say -- >> chris christie was puffer fish. >> that's a very impressive guy. >> mitt romney scratched chris christie off the vp list for a variety of reasons, including his medical history. >> his health is very solid, very good. >> romney gawked at christie's weight, cackling verbally to his age. >> hey [ bleep ] chow down. >> it's a pretty compelling story. >> doesn't make it valid. >> it's silly season. >> if you like your health care

plan -- >> vice journalists. >> you can keep your health care plan. >> never join a pylon. >> i don't remember significant discussions around some of the verbiage on this. >> the anecdote is not proof. >> everything is not an anecdote. >> the plural of anecdotes is many anecdotes. >> oh, yes, many. >> i'm trying positive make my point here. >> it's silly season. >> a footnote police have been dogging me, i admit that. >> well, well, well, rachel maddow. >> i take it as an insult. i will not lie down and say people can call me dishonest, misleading or misrespecting. >> challenge you to a dual. >> if dueling were legal in kentucky, if they keep it up, it would be a dual challenge, but i can't do that, because i can't hold office in kentucky. >> let's get right to our panel. joining us now is aaron car moan, and andrew kaczynski andy gore bowl ski, managing editor at thinking thinkprogress.org.

>> really want to hear from his staff. so far covering for them pretending this is not real plagiarism. i think -- >> let me ask you, you're a journalist in the dot com world. we know wikipedia is out there. they had to outlaw it in schools, tell kids not to use it. is it a valid defense to say he was using wikipedia, which is not -- i don't know. >> he wasn't using wikipedia, he was copy and pasting wikipedia. i want to represent for all internet journalists and say we don't copy/paste, it doesn't count. it's not about lifting information, it's about lifting word for word, as andrew reported. i think the problem is, he wants to cast himself as a serious guy. and serious people do not lift their speeches from wikipedia. i mean, he is just making himself look like he's just not substantial. >> andrew, you've obviously done

a lot of major reporting on this. how serious a story -- we're laughing and challenging rachel maddow to a dual. how serious is this for paul? >> i don't know how damaging it's going to be to paul. we are -- the republicans really haven't hatched on and attacked paul for it. we -- democrats are, you know, having fun with paul plagiarizing wikipedia, and, you know, i reported there is plagiarism in the book which is a lot more serious than plagiarizing from the internet some plot lines. but i don't know if this is going to be damaging to paul necessarily in the long run. i think we have to wait and see if more stuff comes out. if it was as systematic as it seems to be. >> i want to talk about how this plays out in the meta rivalry we're creating between paul and cruz. cruz actually said that rand paul has a problem and that he can never fully depatch himself from the strident libertarianism of his father. so that's ted cruz going after

rand paul on father issues. but ted cruz obviously has some problems of his own. i just want to play a little bit of sound from ted cruz's dad, rafael cruz. >> we need to send barack obama back to chicago. and i would like to send him back to kenya. >> soy gore, strident libertarianism, news letters, versus rafael cruz and being a birther. who is in worse daddy trouble? >> i just heard that ted cruz is going to shut down the government unless rand paul promises never to read wikipedia again. you're right. they have kind of rough issues here. on one hand, rand paul, who has a history of ron paul. and that is actually an asset. he has the infrastructure that ron paul built. and if he runs in 2016, he can use that infrastructure in places like iowa, to really make a big credible push. but then ted cruz, who is

very -- has very deep connections to the evangelical community in iowa, whose father could help him in this regard to talk and work some of these voters. so, you know, they're going to go after some of the same people, and it's why you're seeing some of the tension and some of the dueling, because come 2016, i think they're really going to be at each other's necks. >> and aaron, the other interesting twist to this, right, is that rand paul has indeed, as igor said built on the following of the libertarian wing of the party and ted cruz has alienated himself from the establishment. so in a weird way, rand paul has sort of established himself as i don't know, the more establishment of the fringe candidates. >> i think he's more politically savvy, might be the way. i mean, i don't know how ted cruz thinks he's going to sail to the nomination but every speech he gives trashing his colleagues. i mean, he is not going to have a lot of friends when primary season comes around, whereas rand paul, i think, has recognized unlike his father,

who sort of was a pure representation of his views from the sidelines, he actually wants to get things done. he's working with mitch mcconnell, distanced himself from the shutdown strategy for ted cruz. i think the one thing these guys have in common not mentioned, they both make these populist pitches and they both come from these elitist backgrounds. ted cruz went to harvard and princeton -- >> never let's you forget it. >> never let's you forget it. supreme court. rand paul is the son of a congressman and they both are the insurgents coming to washington to prove the elitists wrong. >> and given the state of the republican base, andrew, which of the two do you think as a political advantage right now within the republican party, between cruz and paul? >> probably ted cruz. i mean, rand paul sort of disappeared during the shutdown. ted cruz was the whole voice of it. i think right now ted cruz is sort of the voice speaking to the disenchanted republican voter, fed up with the establishment, and he sort of is filling that void right now. >> i think what the two have in

common, they have both made completely irrelevant one marco rubio. pretty stunning. thank you erin car moan, andrew and gene. >> the gop report is about to get field tested on lgbt rights. how will house republicans respond? stay with us. ♪ [ coughs, sneezes ] i have a big meeting when we land, but i am so stuffed up, i can't rest. [ male announcer ] nyquil cold and flu liquid gels don't unstuff your nose. they don't? alka seltzer plus night fights your worst cold symptoms, plus has a decongestant. [ inhales deeply ] oh. what a relief it is.

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just a short time from now, the senate may finally pass a landmark piece of legislation ending discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender. republican dean heller of nevada indicated this morning he would support the employment nondiscrimination act known as enda. his vote would mean the bill may now have the 60 votes required to overcome any obstruction tactic. joining us now, richard blumenthal of con.

first things first, the vote is scheduled for a few minutes from now. are you confident it passes? >> i'm very optimistic. and, in fact, confident with senator heller's support. we now have the critical number of republicans. the real battle now is probably going to be in the house. and my hope is that speaker boehner will very simply allow a vote to occur, much as he did with the violence against women act, where there was clearly support among republicans. and i believe there is enough support in the house, as there is in the senate, for this measure to be approved. and it is historic. it is important, profoundly significant to the nation, to be inclusive in banning discrimination in the workplace. >> and senator, you're right, it is a long time coming and i think a lot of people are not even aware, necessarily, this is not already in law. but speaker boehner, you mentioned speaker boehner, but he has indicated where he is on this and does not support it. aren't we right back into the same vicious cycle where the senate passes a piece of legislation and john boehner simply refuses to act on it?

are you worried that's going to happen with this bill, as well? >> i'm worried, but i am very hopeful he will see where the country is on this. you know, 21 states already have laws similar to enda, banning discrimination against anyone on the basis of sexual orientation. and that's the kind of inclusive approach we need here. so i believe that speaker boehner will be forced to yield to a popular opinion and the will of the people and permit a majority to vote. and allow this kind of measure to become law. after all, all of the arguments made against this measure, same ones made against title 9 and title 7 about litigation and costs and so forth. and they have all proven to be frivolous. >> and, you know, i want to talk -- getting beyond speaker boehner to your colleagues. heritage action, obviously highly influential on the hill with your republican colleagues has said they're going to score this vote. you've had a lot of the same

signals on immigration reform. when you talk to your colleagues on the other side of the aisle, do you get the sense that they personally believe something like this is a good idea but are afraid to act, or that there is an entrenched disbelief in doing this kind of civil rights action? >> the country is moving. and so are my colleagues toward this kind of belief that discrimination has no place in american society based on sexual orientati orientation, that anybody discriminating against any member of the lgbt community is acting wrongly morally, and ought to be banned from doing it legally. and i have been involved in this kind of enforcement action as a state attorney general, clearly there are measures that express the moral conscience of the nation. i think that's what's reflected in my colleagues, being more willing, on both sides of the aisle, to revisit and reconsider and move in this direction. >> all right. senator richard blumenthal, we

will be watching for that vote and thank you for being here. >> thank you. still ahead, the latest on friday's shooting at l.a.x. more guns. is that really the solution? road closed? there's a guy... excuse me? glacier point? follow me! ♪ follow me! keep up, keep up, keep up. ♪ look he's right there! follow me! [ male announcer ] the nissan pathfinder. wow! follow me! [ male announcer ] nissan. innovation that excites. now get a $279 per month lease on a 2014 nissan pathfinder. ♪ [ female announcer ] to bake. or not to bake. that is a silly question. bake the world a better place

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it can feel like a national past time, discussing the motives and methods of the latest mass shooting. in the latest incident, friday's shooting at terminal 3 at the los angeles international airport where a gunman approached a checkpoint, pulled a .233 caliber assault rifle from a bag and opened fire, targeting tsa agents, injuring several people and taking the life of a tsa officer named gerardo hernandez, the first tsa officer to die in the line of duty since the agency was created in 2001. the suspected shooter, 23-year-old paul anthony ciancia, was charged this weekend with murder of a federal officer, and commission of

violence at an international airport. after being shot at the scene of the crime, he remains in critical condition but is not believed to have suffered brain damage, allowing for the possibility he might be able to answer questions at some point. and while the entirety of his motive is yet to be known, he did have on him at the time a letter. which had language associated with the anti-government patriot movement, as well as some additional anti-government literature about a conspiracy to form a single global government. and for more, i'm joined by brand-new grio.com columnist, goldie taylor and founder of stop handgun violence, john rose en that will. i want to start with you, goldie. we have this once again confluence of we don't really know what the motives are, but there was this literature of anti-government random fervor and a gun. what can we realistically attack? we can't deal with people's

ideology. there is nothing that could have been done to stop him. >> there are a couple things that could have been done to stop him. but ironically, it was these kinds of weapons that not so far away in the south central los angeles when we had gang wars happening, black boys killing one another with these kinds of weapons, that really pushed the first assault weapons ban that came to us. and so it is ironic now that when we see these kinds of weapons going into our airports, where we have thousands of travelers coming through l.a.x. each day, when we aren't making the same call, maybe it's because who was holding the gun? what could we do to stop it? we could ban high-capacity magazines. we could ban military assault style weapons. they should not be in the hands of civilians. look, i am a firm proponent of the second amendment but not this bastardized version that says anybody can have anything they want at any time they want. >> what you hear a lot is the answer is to arm the it tsa agents, to arm the teachers in the schools, arm people in movie theatres and malls and all the

places where we have to go on a day-to-day basis want and to feel safe. is there any way to refute that argument when, in fact, this man was able to walk right up to tsa agents, there was nobody armed in between him and them and he was able to shoot and kill one of those agents. is there a -- an answer, are more people in the airports -- is there any legitimacy to that whatsoever? >> i absolutely believe in the second amendment. in fact, i'm a gun owner myself. but the second amendment was never intended to arm criminals, the mentally ill and international terrorists with high-capacity ammunition clips and assault-type weapons. these are the common denominator in all the mass shootings. we give law enforcement officers handguns, but we give criminals high-capacity ammunition clips, and large weaponry like the ar-15 made by smith & wesson and bushmaster. without even an i.d. or background check in 30 states and thousands of gun shows.

the solution is not arming every school and public place. there were armed police officers at columbine who were outgunned by teenagers with assault weapons. what we need, just like the president called for and congress did not have the spine to do, is renewing the ban on assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition clips. so that the most someone could do was have a service weapon like police use or handgun with ten rounds versus 100 rounds, as this guy had at l.a.x. >> and goldie, and yet you do have this sort of sense of political paralysis. these shootings happened, it's an outrage on the media, we talk about it for a few days and then we go back to doing nothing. if nothing was done after sandy hook, is there any hope whatsoever the congress will take up the remedies that john just mentioned? >> i think it will take a turning of the house of representatives, frankly. we've got gerrymandered congressmen and women sitting there in congress who are not necessarily following the rule of the people.

80% of the people across this country agree we ought to have background checks and should close the gun show loopholes and not adjudicate and mentally ill people to be able to buy weapons. we believe across this country, 90% of us don't believe that high-capacity magazines belong in the hands of civilians. and so why can't this congress, this gop-controlled congress make those kinds of policy decisions? it's because they're bought and paid for by the nra, who don't represent everyday americans. they represent the gun manufacturers, and their only job as gun manufacturers is to make sure there is a further proliferation of guns in this country. >> maybe, john, is the answer to go after the gun manufacturers. do we need to revisit the idea of liability as a way to sort of curb this behavior, since we don't have the political will in washington? >> absolutely. again, i'm a gun owner and i support gun rights. but the gun industry is the only industry in america that is not regulated. toy guns and teddy bears and oh every other consumer product

have regulations. it's why there is a red dot at the end of the barrel. but real guns that will result in 83 more dead americans today, eight kids every three days. that's a classroom like sandy hook every three days. zero regulations. they're prohibited. the national consumer safety is prohibited. bushmaster, they own 20% of the ammunition market. body armor and they are given a license to kill without any accountability, because congress has prohibited their regulation, and prohibited the ability to sue the gun industry. you can sue me as a real estate guy. you can't sue certain russ or bushmaster or smith & wesson for selling ar-15s or high-capacity clips to criminals knowingly. >> thank you so much to john rose en that will and goldie taylor, whose new column "breaking black" appears every

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now it's time to clear the air. in september, 1964, two months after president lyndon johnson signed the civil rights act into law, senator strom thurman, candidate for president, who specialized in epic filibusters of civil rights laws and one of 21 democrats, plus 6 republicans, to vote against the 64 bill, quit the democratic party. he became one of only two republican senators to represent a southern state. the other was john tower of texas. when strom passed away in 2008, he was praised by congressman joe wilson, and senator jeff sessions as having helped to build the modern republican party in the south. thurman was one of the most famous party-jumpers in american

political history but far from the only one. lots have done it. ronald reagan, judge jesse helms. lieberman became independent in 2001 and 2006. and arlen specter, the 29-year republican senator from pennsylvania became a democrat in 2009. which brings us to charlie crist, who this morning announced he will run for florida governor as a democrat. he was not only been governor of florida before. back in twist, he was a life-long and considered a conservative republican. john mccain considered him for running mate in 2008. as governor crist signed a ban on gay adoption and considered a social and fiscal conservative but now charlie crist's former party has moved so far to the right he was essentially pushed out. his sins? in 2008, christ held the polls open so the long lines of voters could cast their ballots, which helped barack obama win the state and the white house. as governor, he vetoed a bill that would have required women to pay for an ultrasound before

getting an abortion. he restored voting rights for former felons and vetoed a union-busting merit pay bill for teachers. so can charlie crist reinvent himself as a centrist democrat ask get back into the governor's mansion? polls indicate that, yes, he would beat rick scott but some democrats say no, and here's part of an ad currently running on youtube from his democratic opponents supporting his primary challenger, nan rich. >> i work to be the people's governor every day. you, the people, were in charge. >> hi, this is charlie crist calling to set the record straight. i'm pro life, i oppose amnesty for illegal immigrants, i support traditional marriage, paid for by charlie crist, republican for governor. >> the people, always have, always will. >> okay, but here's the thing. republican politics, so toxic right now, has shown the danger of purity tests. if crist can win, would democrats be starter to embrace the convert rather than risk losing? that's